After being a LLL Leader for 20 years and IBCLC for almost 15, having been in on many discussions and observations about being a person who helps women to breastfeed .....

I honestly think that there is no hope of IBCLC really meaning anything, professionally speaking, unless it is earned after completion of a recognized course of study at the university level.  This is what makes us different from all other health care professions and will continue to set us apart and keep us from being employed in the health care field.  While it is true that a few people have broken through this barrier, the vast majority of IBCLC's, who are not also RNs or MDs, are unable to find reasonable employment in this field - that is, a job that pays a living wage.  Most IBCLCs who are self-employed and making any kind of money are doing it through sales and rentals.  Some do well by speaking and/or writing books.  This is not how most other HCPs make money - this is something that a few of them might do on the side for extra income or because it is something that they enjoy doing.  I know that pioneers in any field have to work hard to get things going, but this has been a life-long "career" for me and although my knowledge of breastfeeding has increased enormously because of the re-energization that the emergence of IBLCE and ICLA have brough to the field, I am still subsidizing my own career as a lactation consultant.  The little bit of money I do make is immediately spent on books, education, etc.  While some of the money I make as a medical technologist goes to the same thing, it is a very small percentage of my total salary.  So, I work 45+ hours a week in the lab and then put in a lot of "overtime" being a lactation consultant, and still don't get anything close to what the employed LC's are getting in terms of experience with moms and babies.  I feel that I am slowly but surely falling behind.   This is what a lot of IBCLCs are doing and it really wears you down after a while.  The joy of watching a mother and baby connect is what keeps me going each day.

Anyways, I don't think it is a question of what kind of a background makes for a "better" LC - I think that we all agree that there are many skills involved on many different levels.  We need desperately to find a way to make this into a real profession and I think that we need to do it pretty soon, or it will become a nursing specialty, by default.  I know that there are a lot of discussions going on about this at IBLCE and ILCA.  What the next step is, I don't really know.

Sorry so long.....




Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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